Wonderful. This jerk spends all his time on TV talking up his Plan B for which he ends up not even having the votes. I guess the ‘conservative purge’ of last week didn’t convince anyone to support him. Boehner is a complete and utter failure, but then again so is the entire GOP caucus. If there was any leadership there, Boehner would be seriously challenged for Speaker. Other than noise from Bachmann that she might challenge him (nothing more than theatre) no one has stepped up to stop this disaster. Pathetic.

And if they’re not going to hose us on Christmas eve, perhaps they’re waiting to do it on New Year’s eve. Oh, and yes, it looks like the Senate is also leaving for Christmas, of course. The silver lining? They’ll be gone and therefore can’t continue to salt the earth, and they’ll finally leave us alone fr a short period of time. This also allows the Obamas to rob us a little bit more with their $4 million Hawaiian vacations.

Confronted with a revolt among the rank and file, House Republicans abruptly scrapped a vote Thursday night on legislation allowing tax rates to rise for households earning $1 million and up, complicating attempts to avoid a year-end “fiscal cliff” that threatens to send the economy into recession.

In a brief statement, Speaker John Boehner conceded the bill “did not have sufficient support from our members to pass.” At the same time he challenged President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to work on legislation to avoid across-the-board tax increases and deep spending cuts due to take effect in less than two weeks.

“The Senate must now act,” the Ohio Republican said.

Emerging from a hurriedly-called evening meeting of House Republicans, Ohio Rep. Steve LaTourette said Boehner had told lawmakers he’s “going to call the president and he’s going to go down and talk to him and maybe they can hammer something out.”

The turn of events marked a personal setback for Boehner, and yet another indication of the power of tea party-backed lawmakers who helped Republicans gain a majority in the 2010 elections.

One first-termer, Rep. Tim Huelskamp, said the developments were “a victory for Republican principles.” The Kansas Republican is one of three lawmakers recently stripped of favored committee assignments for bucking the leadership.

One bill covered under the rule would extend current tax rates on annual family income under $1 million, while a second bill would replace the sequester with a GOP plan that mostly spares defense cuts in January.

Passage of the rule will allow the House to consider both bills later in the day. GOP leaders quickly added the sequester replacement bill to the package on Wednesday, after it became clear that Republicans were not fond of only passing a bill that some say would result in a tax increase for people earning more than $1 million.

apparently the stupid repubs are worried about who’s gonna be blamed for anything bad happening. what they SHOULD do, is pass a bill that CUTS ALL TAXES & CUTS SPENDING, then hold a press conference, explain it to the people, then go home. END OF STORY. but the won’t, so that’s why it’s over for them

Some of you are looking at this from the wrong perspective. In the immortal words of Bob Dole, “Sometimes gridlock is good.” These days, I yearn for gridlock. It’s probably the best we’re going to get.

As far as I understand it, ONLY 12 REPUBLICANS HAVE TO VOTE “PRESENT” AND BOEHNER CAN BE REPLACED…
WHY…AM I NOT HEARING TONS OF TALK ABOUT THE TEA PARTY/CONSERVS PULLING THIS OFF?
WE CAN GET RID OF HIM JANUARY 3RD!!!!! WHATS THE PROBLEM, DO IT.